Job Market Report July 2019

Accountancy & finance in detail

There is continuing high demand for accountancy & finance staff - although candidate availability reduced by a further 4%

The number of candidates who are actively looking for work is markedly lower than CV Screen’s other divisions.

Data Analysis

The demand for Accountancy & Finance staff dropped for the 4th month running (although the drop was only 0.1% in June).

Candidate availability in the sector fell by 4.3% in June as candidates remain reluctant to change roles.

The number of candidates within the sector who are actively looking for work on our database stands at 7.3%.

Less than 5% of Accountancy & Finance professionals are “Open to Opportunities” on LinkedIn.

The growth in demand for accountancy & finance staff has been five times faster than growth in the Contract/Interim market in 2019.

Commentary

Uncertainty in the UK economy has most certainly impacted on candidate confidence in 2019, with just over 7% of candidates active within the sector and it continues to decline.

The sector is traditionally more cautious than many others, this is seen within the statistics which show that accountancy & finance professionals are more likely to choose job security over the potential for increased remuneration.

We have continued to see employers offering above market rate to secure talent, but it appears that this isn’t having a marked increase in the number of candidates looking for work.

It appears that candidates within the sector are more likely to favour the traditional job hunting methods (registering with recruiters, job boards). This can be seen on LinkedIn with under 5% of Accountancy & Finance professionals “open to opportunities” (compared to over 10% in the Digital & Marketing sector).

We continue to see high demand for finance professionals and employers are certainly being more flexible with the remuneration they are prepared to offer. Whether this results in increased candidate availability remains to be seen, but the likelihood is that with Brexit less than 4 months away we won’t see a big shift in the jobs market.